From POTS to PANS: A commentary on the evolution to Internet telephony

We describe some of the challenges and problems as we move from the world o f plain old telephony services (POTS) to the promise of Internet-based pret ty amazing new services (PANS) We present a set of ideas that relate the ar chitectural evolution of networks services to the underlying changes in tec hnology. After examining the motivations behind the drive to Internet multi media communications, we discuss the distribution of service intelligence i n the future communications architecture. As with any period of evolution, thorny problems arise regarding interworking between the two network archit ectures. A brief exploration of the intelligent net work is presented as a solution to address in Finally, we examine how the transition to an Interne t-based system might affect billing for transport and services.